Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) User Reviews

I've never seen anything like this before!

[qwertyuioplkjhgfdsazxx · 6/10 · 23 September 2021]

I watched this movie knowing only the title, and I believe the element of surprise elevated the experience. Without spoiling the story, I can say that this movie is perfectly described as a roller coaster ride.

In the beginning of the ride, you have a steady climb ahead of you, which takes its time to get to a high altitude. You keep going upvery slowly, and all you can see is the track going up. The main character is introduced, and we follow her for a good while.

Then, the roller coaster slows down and halts at the top. There's a change of chapter and you're not sure about what's coming next. A dictionary of different words is displayed through text and visuals, words that aren't necessarily interconnected. Then, when you least expected it, the roller coaster gains a lot of speed and goes all over the place super fast. You don't even have time to process everything that you're seeing and you can't see where this is going to take you. You even get a bit confused and scared about how long this part is going to last, yet you can't escape the ride yet.

Then, when you're shaken up for the rollercoaster, the ride suddenly starts going slower as you get to a more steady track, and you realise that the end of the ride may arrive soon. The story returns to the teacher and we find out her fate. Here, the conservative nature of the Romanian culture is displayed, with moments of humour, frustration and seriousness, with many stereotypes of people showing their true colours and values.

But then... the roller coaster reveals a loop out of nowhere, that leaves you upside down and then the ride ends really abruptly. You don't know what just happened, you don't know how to react and as you're unbuckling your seatbelt and leaving the premises, you're still confused as hell.

This review may be relatable to the people who have seen this movie, yet may leave people who haven't seen it yet really confused. And I'm still confused about this movie myself, and this is the best way I can describe this.

I recommend people to watch this movie. As confused about how to feel about this movie, I think this is an excellent thought-provoking experience which could start a debate about real-life cultural problems.

Interesting, but a bit pretentious for its own good

[pasaribuharisfadli · 7/10 · 22 March 2022]

This NSFW satire can be hilarious (and insightful) sometimes. But, aside from being a commentary about the collective hypocrisy or the decay of humanity, its unconventional style in the story-telling tends to hinder the film to be more than just a didactic and somewhat preachy (if not pretentious) rhetoric.

It's not a comedy

[novica83 · 6/10 · 17 March 2022]

This film is a artistic criticism of Romanian society. Chapter 1 is all porn and boredom. Mainly it's main character walking under the ads of film sponsors. Chapter 2 and 3 are pure art. Chapter 2 is a pure satire on all world societies. Chapter 3 is a ode to hypocrisy of all human kind. It's worth watching, but don't expect much. Just try to bare the 1. Chapter. Rest of the film is good.

Clever, Provocative Whackiness, That Could Have Been an Even Greater Achievement

[ontoson · 12 May 2021]

'Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn' is an unorthodox, provocative, scathing piece of moviemaking that due to its low crowd-pleasing coefficient will likely not be for everyone. Since I have no problem with significant amounts of in-your-face-attitude on the director's side, I quite liked it.

Architecturally, the movies borrows from some examples of French Nouvelle Vague Cinema - if I had a better memory, I could tell you exactly which ones - in that the camera frequently and in its center piece completely deviates from the dealings of its protagonists. In this way, a film that starts off with a story about an instance of accidental pornography widens its scope dramatically to become nothing less than a satirical portrait of a pornographic (Romanian, but just Romanian?) society. Using 'pornography' as an abstract (anti-)moral topos reminded me of Samuel Maoz' 'Foxtrot'.

While I think that the dramaturgic fundamentals of the movie are well thought through, I also think the movie could have been even better. Especially in the third part, the discussion of the matter at hand meanders quite a bit, can be tedious, and will probably not escape all charges of weisenheimery.

Bottom line is, that most viewers will probably switch it off at one point in complacent disgust. If you make it to the end, though, you will not see its explosive, weapons-grade finale coming, which is again well in line with its subversive intentions.

Not bad

[Surveyor99 · 7/10 · 7 October 2022]

There are three categories of people rating this movie. Those who understand satire and symbolism , those who don't and those who are so enraged that their country is being trashed by an unrealistic depiction of the current society.

Guys, it's a movie which is supposed to be fictional and not realistic. Even movies based on real life events fall in the fictional category because no matter the context, a movie will never depict reality as it truly happened but through the lens of the story teller. So people have to chill and look at this movie from an artistic point of view and the message is sending out there (for those who get it of course).

And for those enraged about this director hating his country, maybe you should look at some of Hollywood's greatest directors who made many movies depicting the decadent part of the American society. Does that mean they all hate their country ?

Romania is truly a great country and regardless of the comment by an ignorant reviewer who said and I quote "there are other countries more developed than. Romania which are not part of EU" , I think those guys should actually go and visit Romania where they will quickly realized that the Country has earned its place in the EU.

To be honest I have never heard of this Romanian director until I saw this movie and IMO he has artistic talent. The fact that he was able to produce a movie like this shows that Romania is truly a democratic society where artists can express themselves without being censored.

This movie is not for everyone but it's definitely not a 1,2 or even a 3 star movie. I think it is at least a 7.

A poignant, clever satire of society

[Come-and-Review · 8/10 · 9 April 2021]

Jude is the most experimental, controversial and radical romanian filmmaker: his films never cease to offer a poignant satire of society, irredentism, or his country.

His latest film is a prime example of his peculiarities. The subject is a leaked sextape of a teacher, and the scandal it rises among parents.

The opening of the film features the actual footage of an explicit, unsimulated sextape, not for the purposes of realism (as it could have been with any other Romanian New Wave director), but to force the viewer in the act of voyeurism that will be very blatantly shown in the third act: this chapter of the film features a sort of "trial", in which the teacher is forced to face the parents of her students. When one of the parents shows the video to the others with the purpose of "showing things for what they are", the other parents mock the teacher, laugh, or watch with perverse passion. Through this external sight, the viewer is thus confronted with the reaction they probably displayed at the beginning, a very clever way to involve the audience.

The previous two chapters of this three-chapter story each have their own purpose. The second chapter is a sort of glossary/collection of anecdotes, which introduces briefly all the notions that are later mentioned in the discussion of the third act: not only sex or equality related concepts, but domestic violence, history and romanian historical episodes (as that is the teacher's subject), philosophical concepts, even a metacinematic consideration, all with the goal of preparing the viewer for the final act. It is not only a way to put all viewers on the same page, but also to make explicit the thematic range of the film.

The first chapter features Emi (the teacher) walking around Bucharest doing chores. Through her journey, Jude shows the city as it is under the pandemic (the film was entirely shot last year) and its effects of distress on people, more and more nervous, without disdaining some subtle visual digressions.

While Jude makes very clear which side he supports in the debate of the third chapter, he chooses to give three different endings to the story, which I won't disclose, maybe to thus imply that the viewer has to judge for theirself.

Not the director's best effort

[Radu_A · 7/10 · 15 May 2021]

Radu Jude has become the enfant terrible of Romanian film since he won the director's Silver Bear for "Aferim" (2015), a Western of sorts which was indeed highly innovative and poignantly satirical. He has become a preacher of social criticism, lashing out against Romanian antisemitism, xenophobia, nationalist tendencies and now misogyny. This film won the Golden Bear, as did the equally provocative and experimental "Touch me not" by Adina Pintilie in 2018. Pintilie was part of the jury which awarded the prize, adding to the controversy of crowning a film made on EU film fund money that very few Romanians would be willing to see. Jude isn't wrong with his observations - he just presents them in a deliberately awkward fashion, practically forcing the viewer into a hostile reaction.

Splitting the film in three different chapters doesn't help. In the first installment - after an explicit private sex tape-, we see the main character shopping in CoVid-struck Bucharest and mentioning on the phone that the sex tape has been leaked, for which she has been called to a PTA meeting that night. There isn't any narrative purpose, all we see is construction sites, ads, SUV drivers losing their temper. Then follows an equally pointless dictionary of sorts, with situational shots Jude deems representative of Romanian society. At last, the story resumes with the PTA meeting, where the woman is heavily accused of debauchery and corruption of youth, but steadfastly defends herself. Ultimately there are three increasingly bizarre conclusions.

As you can see from the description, this is a film that almost asks you not to watch it, which is a shame because some of its statements are truly impressive. For instance, in the "dictionary" the term "aborigeni" is translated as "persons of little worth who burden the soil of newly discovered countries"- ouch, bull's eye. There is shocking cell phone footage of a Romani woman hit by a bus driver with a cane to prevent her from boarding, a shocking reminder how real racist hatred still is in my homeland. And during the PTA confrontation, a parent apologizes for a racist slur against gypsies to a present African, who replies "it's OK, I know I'm not meant". These hard and important jabs are however drowned in a sea of obscenities. Like to many cooks spoil the soup, too many issues spoil this film.

Chaotic vulgar satire, not for everyone

[luka-demarin · 3/10 · 22 July 2021]

The point is clear: our society is shallow and stupid. But the way it was delivered was... Well, shallow and stupid as well. Chaotic scenes, vulgarity just for the sake of 'art', no emotion triggered whatsoever (except a little bit of a disgust actually. Maybe that was the point). Even the quasi-intellectual criticism didn't help. And the third part was intensely tiring trying to fill 30 mins with every typical political discussion full of reading articles from the smartphone. And the three different endings should have been the best part?

Sorry, didn't work out for me. But must say my friend gave it a 10 so... Not for anyone, I guess.

Aferim!, Radu Jude.

[sanda_moroianu · 9/10 · 29 May 2021]

There are two distinct categories of people who reviewed this film: those who awarded it high marks and those who didn't- at all. The director, Radu Jude- impressed me with his "Aferim!" - a film which gives food for thought by dealing with a very little known and uncomfortable subject in Romanian history: the slavery of gypsies from past centuries.

"Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" is just as uncomfortable, but it is set in contemporary Romania. As contemporary as it gets: the pandemic year of 2020. The title itself is misleading; this film is not about sex, though it is the starting point of the plot. For that, one can search Pornhub. This is a film about how sick and ailing the Romanian society is in its entirety; the first chapter of the film takes us on a ride along with the protagonist through the Bucharest of our days: noisy, dirty, unkempt, unruly, impolite, careless, unappealing, selfish, vulgar. If some don't like it, well, why break the mirror if it shows you what you look like? A lot of the filming in this section reminded me of La Nouvelle Vague.

The second chapter has apparently no connection whatsoever with the first. Or has it? An ad libitum dictionary of contemporary notions translated into the Romanian realities of the moment; what can be more hilarious and heart wrenching at the same time?! Considering the way it is put together, Monty Python comes to mind.

As for the third chapter, well, this is Romanian society at its best. First of all, it is not for the parents to decide whether a teacher can be fired or not; it is a state school, hence free for the pupils, so the parents shouldn't have a say in who stays and who goes. This chapter of the film is so full of harsh satire directed at how the Romanians think they have a say in everything, thus displaying a wide range of all kinds of preconceptions, stereotypes and fake news distribution- racial, political, social, sexual- that one doesn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

Yes, this is us, whether we like it or not.

And the grand finale, well... you have to watch it in order to choose which one suits you best. I go for the third, full throttle.

Great job, Radu Jude and his team! A fully deserved Golden Bear!

Take a stroll throug Bucharest

[mia-for · 7/10 · 15 August 2021]

Great depiction of Romanian patriarchal society and fear of other ethnicities. The walk through the Bucharest paints a picture in what state this country is, not forget that Romania is in EU and some more prosperous European countries not.

Messy

[garethcrook · 2/10 · 4 March 2022]

I'm almost a little loathed to review this. It begins with 3 minutes of fairly full on porn, despite this, it's not about sex. Although I'm not convinced it knows what it's about. Maybe things are different in Romania, but it's an uncomfortable way to start a film. Emilia (Katia Pascariu) is a teacher in present day Romania. It's been shot during the pandemic so everyone's wearing masks. There's reason for that awkward opening scene. It's a sex tape of Emilia and her husband that has been posted online. Putting Emilia in hot water, with her pupils parents and the prestigious school she works at. I've never been to Romania, but this paints a very bleak picture. The opening act (it's split into three titled segments) is largely made up of shots of Emilia wandering around. It's got a very low budget DIY tone, with long shots capturing the streets rather candidly. Often lingering on the modern decay and not really addressing the issue at the top. It's clearly trying to make a point about the current Romanian society, director Radu Jude isn't a fan. Almost everyone depicted is an arsehole at best or misogynistic antisemitic idiot at worst. It is a weird film. Things get even more detached in the second act with a series of damning archive shots all poking distaste of Romanian history, from military to religion. It's like it's all of a sudden decided to be an art house documentary. I think the idea is to establish Romanian society as being fractured, uncultured, uneducated and generally pretty stupid. Along with that opening scene, the intention continues to be to shock with needless pornographic snippets used alongside a pretentious narration. As we enter the final act, we're back with Emilia as she faces the firing squad of parents who decide it's a great idea for a group screening of Emilia's extra curricular activities, while she sits there mortified. Here it does take an interesting turn. Emilia attacked, doesn't back down. Defending herself and her right to a private life. Accepting the unfortunate situation, but pressing the parents on their own responsibilities. It's a common issue in the world we live in. How does the internet affect our privacy. The things we choose to share and those we don't. What effect does it have on us, on others, on our children. The scene is simple, but bounces around the whole social construct. It's not enough to save this as a film though. It's still a mess. The camera work is terrible. Most of the acting highly questionable and a large portion of the nearly 2 hour duration pretty boring. There's the nucleus of an interesting idea, but it's terribly botched and although a title towards the end states this was all intended as a joke, the finale is ridiculous. It's had some good reviews, but this isn't one. I hated it.

Porn is not the sex, it's the moral hypocrisy on display and our media driven society

[jjr-76474 · 9/10 · 10 August 2021]

Because of a leaked sex tape, a teacher finds herself scrutinized and reviled by the system.

Rade Jude is an iconoclast but not a gratuitous director and writer. Halfway through he film he references Pasolini, and that makes perfect sense, the Bunuel from "le charme discret de la bourgeoisie", would have been at home too. This movie is an indictment of our moral hypocrisy, be it pertaining to sexual behavior, but also to social and political constructs, and in a very contemporary manner to all the lies and pretense surrounding our individual ways of handling the Covid pandemic.

This movie is graphic, VERY graphic! If you're easily shocked, see something else. But if you don't mind being provoked, being made uneasy, or even challenged in what you consider proper, as long as it is for a reason, go for it.

I don't want to go in spoiler mode, the movie deserves to be discovered as you see it. However it has three parts, each with its own cinematographic language and esthetics. Each part invites us to consider a different angle of the same issue: our relationship to images, their meaning, and the value, or infamy, we attach to them.

From the opening right in your face use of them, through a contemplative approach of the disconnect between what we see and what we're told we see or what we're told to watch, through an exploration of the lies or over-meaningfulness we create when we associate images and comments on these images, to the absolute hypocrisy of the morally woke and conservative puritans alike when it comes to confronting ourselves to the beyond the surface value of images.

And despite the content it is not at all a boring intellectual movie, it is fun, it is in your face, it is masterfully shot, and it solicits your eyes as much as your brain.

Rather erratic but ok.

[Kesktelevisioon · 6/10 · 16 July 2021]

Rather erratic film, as it consists of three parts, which could be three separate short films.

First part is rather boring, second part will give some necessary background about Romania that will lead also to the better understanding of the third part of the film. And finally the third part that shows to the viewers the fact that even simple questions are not answered in black and white, when people are like fifty different shades.

No character, no personality, no substance. Just vulgarity and and effort to shock.

[Mishu4 · 2/10 · 13 May 2021]

The movie makes an effort in depicting the people, the culture and the city as being ugly and vulgar. The only good job it does is that of being exactly what it tries to ridicule. It is vulgar and ugly, it is forced and fake, full of poorly written and acted dialogue. The ending is evasive as it has nothing to contribute to the problems of the society it tries to ridicule.

It is the perfect example of what is wrong with cinematography in this country as keeps alienating it's audience by ignoring them and feeding them garbage as packaged as art. The public is a pri

The first part of the movie is a 30 minute walk trough areas of the city, full of long shots, loud noises, constant out of frame cursing, and exaggerated situations and conflicts. They bring no value to the story and don't lead to anything, nothing makes sense because it is cherry picked and forced. The teacher goes to the supermarket so we can witness an argument about somebody not having enough money to pay for cigarettes and beer, goes to the pharmacy so we can listen to another forced dialogue, and then continues to go in the Old Town, the tourist trap of the city, alone, to have a coffee. This of course is done so we can listen to another forced conversation some random teenagers have, conversation that again, has nothing of value to add.

The second part of the movie is a series of images or videos with superimposed text with varying messages about society, religion, violence, and the occasional genitalia, just to pull you back from the safe zone where you probably drifted while hoping this will be over soon. There is no time to process anything and it keeps going for about another 30 minutes. It feels like and edgy teenager's attempt of making a stock video montage.

The third part comes back to the teacher who now faces trial in the school yard. It is a circus moment and it is executed as such. The overused stereotypes are poorly done, with some exceptions. The racist and offensive language is again forced and lacking wit, used only as an element of shock. TV characters join in randomly and try to contribute to the event, mocking the actual plot. We have no actual conclusion about the leaked sex scene or the trial, but we were forced to watch it twice.

Reading professional critics about the movie is sad as everyone tries to depict this as being a form of sophisticated art filled with complexity. It depicts the city as this and that and shocks and impresses... the exact same copy/pasta. Getting of your high hose and looking at things from the ground will only shock with the plainness and cringe of it all. Critics continue to encourage this type of movie, a movie that does not appeal to the public and does not try to connect to the public.

I am both sad and disappointed.

Credit for being different

[smatysia · 6/10 · 26 July 2022]

Well, I've long complained that Hollywood puts out little but comic book films or sequels hoping to cash in. While this is obviously not Hollywood, I still have to give it credit for being different. I wasn't expecting the explicit scene that begins the film, but I'm not a prude, so it's OK. The film then follows the main character around a city, presumably Bucharest, as she does completely mundane things. Many of the bystanders are staring at the camera, so I suppose that they simply shot the film on the streets without any notice. The second part is an artsy montage totally unconnected to the plot or characters. It likely has some deep significance to somebody (Romanians?) but completely escaped me. The final act went back to the plot. I found it weird overall, with some amusing stuff at the end.

Funny and free

[vladimir_p · 10/10 · 7 February 2022]

Well, I'm giving it a 10 because it sucks that such a good movie gets a low imdb score.

But also - not really. I enjoyed it tremendously, more than some smarter, better crafted, more artistic movies. Easily the most enjoyable film of the year, so why not rate it a 10.

It really felt like a breath of fresh air - a kind of sincerity that comes either from the author being perfectly precise or just stripping themselves of all self-consciousness. In this case, it's the latter - and it creates a kind of connection with the filmmaker that reminded me of my best experiences in cinema.

It's not your von Trier's "I'll shock you in this calculated way, and I hope you'll like me", or Almodovar's "I'll shock you to drive a point home". It's "if you are getting shocked by a movie, and not by everything that's going on outside, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

It doesn't say much, imho - just vents about all the things wrong in the world - but it's heart-felt and full of that Eastern European humorous acceptance of the unbearable stupidity of it all. Joyful - come see.

A Sexist Movie on Sexism!

[leiferikson86 · 4 February 2022]

Radu Jude, as a male director, decides to write and direct a movie on sexism and how it affects women and their sexuality. This idea sounds terrible even on paper. But the result is more and more problematic. The movie uses pornography and violence as the "shock effects" in a way that it degrades the woman body again. But the funniest thing is that I Berlinale, a festival with a claim that it is very "progressive" in terms of gender politics, did manage to celebrate this kind of a movie!

lovely

[utm-77894 · 7/10 · 17 April 2023]

The key line of the movie is about a school teacher sex tape is leaked and she is in danger of losing her job. While it is rather interesting to learn more about Romania via random fact bits and sceneries, cutting movie time in (at least) half would not change anything, the story would be completely safe. So if you are about to watch this movie (although I'm not sure I'd recommend it), keep that trusty pillow and blanked near your side, just in case. Oh yeah, the movie does contain a number of explicit material scenes, but some of them also seemed to be added just for the shock element or an unnecessary filler...

Art for art sake

[maskatuoklis · 3/10 · 31 March 2021]

The key line of the movie is about a school teacher sex tape is leaked and she is in danger of losing her job. While it is rather interesting to learn more about Romania via random fact bits and sceneries, cutting movie time in (at least) half would not change anything, the story would be completely safe. So if you are about to watch this movie (although I'm not sure I'd recommend it), keep that trusty pillow and blanked near your side, just in case. Oh yeah, the movie does contain a number of explicit material scenes, but some of them also seemed to be added just for the shock element or an unnecessary filler.

Thought provoking

[mecca1 · 8/10 · 19 April 2021]

Awesome movie, but I don't think a person not familiar with Romanian culture and history will understand it properly. I generally don't like artsy films, but this was an example of one done right. It has kept me interested throughout, with minor exceptions. Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you get sad, ashamed, bored, confused. It cycles you through these emotions in a dynamic way.

I also liked the fact that they've advertised some of the sponsors straight on, without trying to hide it in any way.

Mainstream Porn

[billcr12 · 6/10 · 16 June 2023]

The first five minutes can only be described as explicit porn as Emi and her husband have a sexual encounter on camera with filthy language accompanying the graphic imagery.

Emi is a school teacher in Romania and her husband has uploaded the XXX video to the internet where the private school where she works demands an explanation from Emi.

The segment following the sexual encounter has Emi walking through the noisy and chaotic streets of Bucharest where cars are parked on the sidewalks and sirens are a constant part of the environment. The woman just walks and walks and walks for thirty minutes for no apparent reason.

The next portion has a series of images of Hitler, Mussolini and other war criminals as the narrator informs us of the extermination of Roma and Jews in Romania during WWII.

The last chapter has a mock trial of Emi as the school board will determine the fate of the teacher.

Bad Luck Banging could have been much better with some editing. The explicit scenes were not needed.

A negative crescendo. From fairly decent, to kind of bad and excruciatingly bad

[ataraxia91 · 3/10 · 5 February 2023]

The film overall is utterly bad. It's actually a descrencendo it terms of quality, as it starts with a fairly decent first part that's an interesting melange of elegant, subtle criticism towards society and a good showcase of how the Romanian streets feel like today. I can appreciate the value of the long walk in the city because it provides a snapshot of a moment in time; of the aesthetics, general mood and the day-to-day petty attitudes of the people. But, like some kind of a warning or a teasing, whenever there is dialogue or acting involved, things go south.

The second part is a looong series of terms and definitions, apparently encompassing any kind of frustrations at hand, from Hitler to blowjobs. It becomes a lot more superficial, cold-hearted and excessively cynical. And downright inappropriate, giving away a very imature and biased perspective. We see the validation of one shameful and disrespectful moment in recent times (the artist versus the Church - that particular segment was not included, though), we are shown real photos of half naked women from old Romanian newspapers (at this point I'm asking myself if it's a documentary I'm watching) and a very patronizing attitude towards regular people (social distancing versus dancing).

As much as you would like to cut it some slack, the third part is excruciatingly bad, one of the most difficult things to have experienced watching in a long time. I don't think it's even worth explaining too much here. It's a series of clichés, coupled with poorly written dialogue and very bad acting, as well as some absurd interventions that again leave you asking yourself what exactly is this meant to be. This part is so bad, that even the emotional connection that one might remotely have experienced in the first two parts are really flushed down the toilet.

In my opinion, the way too lengthy censored segments of the "looney porn" look very amateurish and even here the acting feels off. I did pick up some irony and self criticism induced by linking censorship with money, but that's way too little humbleness versus the endless strain of frustrations, petty finger pointing and even bullying that Mister Jud(g)e is constantly conveying (pun intended).

In the end, the quality of the film is as intrinsically bad as the very thing that it tries to portray - Romanian society.

in the mirror of Radu Jude

[dromasca · 9/10 · 28 May 2021]

I have several reasons to rejoice that Radu Jude's 'Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn' received the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, where it was released. One of them is that the film demonstrates that the Romanian Wave in cinema, which is far from new, has become permanent as tides and its lead directors continue to make films that capture viewers' attention, reflect Romanian reality (and more recently also history), and they do it in various styles and ways. Another reason is that the film itself is excellently made, with a perfect mastery of the technical means of the profession, and in dialogue with the films of previous generations of filmmakers in Romania. The film was made under the conditions of the pandemic and is (also) a film about the pandemic, one of the first. Many others will of course follow it. Last, I am glad that the success belongs to Radu Jude, the film director who bravely approaches the present and past of the country in his films of the last decade.

The film opens with a prologue that everyone has probably heard about and closes with three possible endings from which the viewer can choose the one he prefers. Between them, three parts, each in a different style, each a facet, a perspective of the complex realities of contemporary Romania. The story is quite simple. Emi (Katia Pascariu), a teacher at a school in Bucharest and her husband film themselves while having sex. Somehow, for reasons never well clarified, the film reaches the Internet. The parents of her students, indignant, ask for a meeting that will lead to the exclusion of the teacher from school. In the first part, filmed in documentary style, often with the hidden camera, we see Emi waiting for the meeting, wandering in the streets of the Romanian capital, with their mixture of modern buildings and old houses, often in ruins, with people in a hurry, indifferent, vulgar, nervous and ready to quarrel over nothing. The second part is a dictionary illustrating a few dozen words from current Romanian vocabulary, including various concepts from history to pornography, illustrated with archive, animation or static images, somewhat in the style that Jude had used in 'The Dead Nation' . The third part describes in a theatre style mixing Caragiale and Kafka the meeting presided by the principal of the school in which the fate of the teacher who faces accusations ranging from immorality to lack of patriotism is debated. The ending will be decided by the viewers.

The film asks the audience a few questions, some may be specific to the Romanian reality, others with a much broader meaning. What are the boundaries between private life and professional and public life? To what extent does an educator or any personality with a public activity have the right to confidentiality in her private life? What does vulgarity mean and to what extent is sex automatically associated with pornography? What is the purpose of the educational activity? Which are the models that we offer to the young generation? What does patriotism mean? Those who know the Romanian realities will probably be less surprised by the mixture of vulgarity and boastful language that comes to the surface in the meeting between parents and teachers. Radu Jude combines three different styles, and they complement each other, the middle section including a very illustrative context, useful to the viewer less familiar with what is happening in Romania today. Katia Pascariu plays the role of Emi excellently, in her sober clothes and with the attitude that combines the panic of paying for a stupid mistake and the fear for the future on the one hand, with the dignity with which she defends her private space and the professional and intellectual probity she faces the crowd of parents. Jude manages to turn the constraints of the conditions in which he had to film into a creative artistic element. The masks required by 'social distancing' erase some of the facial expression but give more power to the eyes and the words that are spoken by the characters. The ending includes a sarcastic reference to routine cinematic approaches, but it is not the only one, in fact there are actually a few more dialogue sequences throughout the film between the director and the cinematography of other times. In my opinion, the jury of the Berlin Festival deserves congratulations for the awarding of this film that is not shy to provoke, but it does so with courage and a precise target. As in previous films, Radu Jude places in front of today's Romanian society a mirror into which many refuse to look. I look forward to seeing how the film will be perceived and received by viewers in Romania and in other countries.

DEFINITELY WEIRD

[jeromesgabilo · 6/10 · 29 April 2022]

A raw and unconventional film about a glimpse of being in a problematic situation in Romania. Definitely, this is one of the most original films of 2021. I love how the film is divided into three sections which prevented the movie from falling into the trap of feeling mediocre and all-over-the-place. The confrontation scene at the end was so interesting and realistic that it suddenly changed the tone of the movie.

Good idea gone bad aka. Don't watch this with your relatives

[FilmFlowCritics · 2/10 · 8 October 2021]

Well.... This could also have been a french movie... The beginning reminded me a bit of "L'amant double" (just more p0rnographic and bad!). We start this movie with watching the full s3X tape that the movie is about. Nothing is left to the imagination, pure hardcore full on sex, something which we will see throughout the movie for no logical reason at all, apart from provoking.

The idea was great and the synopsis intrigued me. This movie could have been a GREAT story... instead of that, you see a movie split in 3 parts, where the first part mainly consists of following a women, how she walks through Bucharest. I've never been to Romania but this certainly doesnt want to make me go there, its a commercial to stay away from Romania.

Second part seems like random tickTock videos stitched together for like 25min (But it felt like 4 hours) and then we finally come to a conclusion in part 3, after I checked my watch no less than 15 times.

While there are interesting and important political messages in between scenes, the movie self sabotages by being all over the place. This could have been a good, politically important 19min short movie, but then ended up being a feature film... who knows why...

I am still not sure if I watched a P0rn here or a real film... It wants to be provocative, sure, but for what reason are we watching this p0rnno for nearly 2h?